Menlo Park, Calif. –
founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on his profile page Monday that the social
networking company has purchased mobile photo-sharing application Instagram for
about $1 billion in cash and stock.
launched two years
ago as a photo sharing service for mobile iOS devices offering the ability to apply
stylized filters to images. The service later expanded by adding an app to for
Google Android devices.
In announcing the deal, both companies said Instagram will
continue to be operated as an independent service, will continue to be
available to rival social networks.
“We believe these are different experiences that complement each
other,” Zuckerberg stated in his posting. “But in order to do this well, we
need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and
features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.”
